Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I can understand the confusion really. Most major religions go for the 'Magic Man Done It' methid of explaining everything, whereas those crazy cats at the definitely not a cult Scientology corporation went for the 'Magic Aliens Done It' approach. They are subtley different, but unfortunately the lack of 'Man' in there stops Scientology from being a religion.

It does exhibit many of the traits of a cult, its cultish behaviour and the fact its members act like such cults really does them no favours. As far as cults go it could, by some, be considered to be one of the most vicious, insidious and evil cults the world has ever seen.

Another view could be that its just a pyramid scheme, but not a normal one. Pyramid schemes are aimed at desparate and stupid people. This pyramid scheme is aimed at really, properly stupid people though. They even test you at their centres using a special 'Barely Simian Retard:Bank Account Size' measuring ratio to see how appropriate you are for their special club.

On the other hand, like religions, original thought is frowned upon. Also, like other major religions, the fact that their belief system is based on 'facts' that fail even the most cursory of inspections generates a huge amount of insecurity which in turn results in massive overreactions to criticism and questioning. The huge investment that people put into these ludicrous belief systems makes them terrified of the thought that they've just been taken for a ride and they'll go to great lengths to cling to them.

So is Scientology just a big fat hairy cult populated by culty cultists exhibiting cultish behaviour in their special cult whilst insisting that it definitely isn't a cult?

15 comments:

Don't forget that unlike most actual religions, you need to pay to be a member of the "Church" of Scientology.

I can see why so many aspects of it appeal, those little testing things they do are basically therapy - so no wonder people feel better when they do them - and hey, I'm all for people feeling good.

What I'm NOT for, is the insistance that mental illnesses aren't real and you shouldn't take meds for them, that Scientology should for some reason be given more respect and protection re:freedom of speech and expression than any other "religion" and Tom Cruise.

Yeah, I know that last one isn't a defensible reason but he is just so obnoxious!

What I don't understand is how people can believe in the alien aspect.

Of course I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist at times, but Scientology goes too far. If you stay at the shallow level that they present to the public, of course it seems seductive.

But, it was founded in the 20th century by a science fiction writer!

How can anyone believe in a religion that holds that Xenu the alien ruler of the Intergalactic Confederation brought 75 million people to earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs, and then their souls clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living? And that the advanced Body Thetans' (of the Scientologists) mission is to isolate these alien souls and neutralise their ill effects?

The short answer is no Jo. There are 2 key pieces of legislation that have removed our ability to effectively protest in the capital. I think thus one comes under the religious tolerance act ( not sure if that is CHD exact wording) which thus one apparently covers, even though it isn't even a legitimate religion in this country. The note nefarious one us the terrorism act. This one does several things including the right to protest within a certain area if parliament without prior approval but it also has a list of organizations you are NOT LEGALLY ALLOWED to posess or display material in favour of so not only are you not allowed to protest without first telling the police and getting. Permit, you are at risk if - for example - you want to protest against turkey's ethnic cleansing of the Kurds because most Kurdish protest groups are on the terrorist list.

Jo - that was actually my main point when I sent the thing to Matt, we've been exchanging fascist news stories recently.

Like the one about people being identified by branded clothing. It's basically a tactic to harass chavs.

Welcome to Britain. No free speach, no constitution, a widening rich-poor divide, a racist DNA database, plans for compulsory biometric identity cards (funded by the public) which hold your personal details on a massive database which the government has already said it will use to share information with certain companies, cash for honours, an illegal war, funding Trident when our armed forces don't have the basic equipment or housing they need . . . .

It's getting close, I also failed to mention "stop and search" tactics, which are basically an excuse to search anyone who happens to be young and non-white, the fact that we imprison more children than any other country in Europe, and that we have more CCTV cameras per person than anyone in the world (I think - that might actually be in Europe too).

The government have been pushing ever further right in a desperate attempt to appease readers of the Daily Mail, who think that "asylum seekers eat our swans", all young people are planning to stab you in your sleep, Muslim (oh, who are we kidding, anyone vaguely brown) = terrorist and that Middle England is the "silent majority" despite the fact that our skewed electoral system means that only their votes actually matter.

Oh well. I guess "freedom" is overrated anyway! All those pesky decisions would get stressful after a while!

oooh lets not forget the new laws that are being proposed that make it illegal to cause offence to anyone wearing an army uniform.

The CCTV thing is in the world rah.

We also have similar laws to you guys that mean that people can be thrown in prison without charge or representation under the guise of 'anti terror laws'. Oh yeah and our shiny new extradition treaty with the US that allows the US government to take anyone in Britain and extradite them without charge or any actual evidence (cheers for that one Tony!). Of course that doesn't work both ways, in fact there is only one side to the treaty - I'm pretty sure its unique in that regard.

Oh crap, I forgot about the new plans to record every single phone call, text message, email, websites visited and a whole load of other stuff that I can't remember - and store ona huge database. 'Cos you know, they might need it.